- FG denies meeting of governors on rumour of Buhari’s death
- Leave me out of Buhari’s death rumour – Saraki
The Presidency, including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has been in covert turmoil over the mix-up on the health status of President Muhammadu Buhari who is currently on 10 days’ vacation in the United Kingdom. This is, particularly so, since the rumuor purporting the death of the President in London which nobody has confirmed while the Federal government has consistently refuted it.
The death rumour has triggered skeletal squabbles among the top notches of the APC leadership and certain officials of government attempting to work out a new power equation or better put, scheming a replacement pattern to fill the ‘death’ vacuum, if real. This has been generating apprehension and a new power struggle in the seat of power.
A reliable source revealed to National Daily that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, APC National Leader, has ‘relocated’ to Abuja in the wake of the troubling specualations and emerging power struggles, part of which was a speculation of plot to compel Vice President Yemi Osibanjo, now Acting President, to resign in lieu of the supposed ‘vacancy’.
All these culminated into several political machinations which include an emergency meeting by APC governors, visit of the Inspector General of Police to London, alleged meeting by Northern elders, etc.
In the storm of all these, the Federal Government denied reports that that governors are set to meet in Abuja to deliberate on the health of President Buhari.
The FG also debunked that governors were also planning to send representatives to London to see the President.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made these denials while receiving members of the Presidential Initiative Committee on the North-East in Abuja.
The Minister noted that there was no need for the visit because the President was merely observing his leave as stated in the letter sent to the Senate on Thursday, January 19, 2017, which he requested 10 days vacation overseas.
The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi, was aid to have revealed the people behind the rumour of the of President Muhammadu Buhari.
An unknown UK Metro online publication report set the inferno of the death rumour indicating that the death occurred in Germany where the President was said to have urgently been rushed to from London.
Meanwhile, the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has called on rumour mongers to refrain from joining him with President Buhari’s ‘death rumour’
Saraki was gathered to have said that he never wanted to address the issue but for calls from across the country and overseas linking him with the rumour.
The Senate President said that the rumours are baseless, unintelligent and spread by those who do not love Nigeria. He admonished those peddling false information not to involve him in the matter.
Saraki, through a statement by his spokesperson, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said: since he was “inundated with calls from across the country and abroad, it became necessary for me to make clarifications from our own end.”
He maintained: “However, I feel it should be known that those behind this baseless, empty and unintelligent mischief are those who do not love this country. Such suggestions as contained in the speculation can only bring ill-will, disunity and crisis to the country and I therefore advise the sponsors to desist immediately. More importantly, these trouble makers should refrain from linking Senator Saraki’s name to their evil plot.”
Moreover, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, Political Adviser to President Buhari, in a radio programme (RayPower FM) monitored from Lagos this Thursday, described the rumour of the president’s death is ridiculous.
“I have read many ridiculous stories saying the Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo is being held hostage by some governors who are trying to compel him to resign. I have equally received several calls regarding this. The story is simply not true. It is a fabrication. Don’t be a purveyor of fake news,” Ojudu had declared.